Thanks to the AJC for this great story!

Virginia Hill was the talk of the town when she peeled off a roll of $100 bills to buy a Marietta house almost 70 years ago. This weekend, she will be the toast of the town.

The late girlfriend of Benny “Bugsy” Siegel shocked sleepy Marietta in the 1930s when she paid $11,000 in cash for the home on Church Street, north of the Marietta Square. According to local lore, the reputed “bag woman” for the Chicago mob bought the house for her mother because she wanted her to live in the best part of town.

Two years ago, Scott and Kelly Register bought the 1928 bungalow-style house and doubled its size. The public will get a chance to peek inside the house and five others in the Church-Cherokee Streets historic district during the annual Marietta Pilgrimage Christmas Home Tour on Saturday and Sunday.

The Registers decorated a room in Hill’s honor with pictures of her dancing, cooking and testifying about organized crime in Congress.

About 10 families have lived in the house since it was built, but a marker in the yard calls it by one name: “The Virginia Hill House.” The Cobb Landmarks & Historical Society supplied the plaque.

This is the 20th year for the tour, benefiting the historical group and Marietta Welcome Center & Visitors Bureau. Welcome Center Director Theresa Jenkins said about 5,000 people toured homes in the Whitlock Avenue historic district last year, raising $36,000 for the two organizations.

She said last year, the tour was named “Best of the Best” for special events by the Georgia Association of Conventions & Visitors Bureaus. The pilgrimage is also on the Southeast Tourism Society’s Top 20 Events in the region.

The houses are open 9 a.m.-6 p.m. and a candlelight tour, 7-9:30 p.m. Saturday; and 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $12-$25.Information: 770-429-1115 or www.mariettapilgrimage.com.

—- Tucker McQueen

I read this today and it mentioned Roswell Street Baptist so I wanted to post it - what a heart warming story as we all endure the commercialism of this time of year. I hope it will reiterate with you the real meaning of Christmas!

By Keith Williamson Special to the Sentinel

A friend of mine asked me last week if I thought Christ is pleased with connecting all the commercialism and indulgences of the Christmas season with his birthday. After a few minutes of thought, I told her this true story before giving my answer. I would like to share it with you.

During my first Christmas as a faithful church member, my Sunday School class at Roswell Street Baptist Church in Marietta, Georgia went caroling to visit some of the people in our church who were not able to attend regular services. We were all singles in our twenties. There were 20 to 30 of us.

We went to visit a lady who was in her nineties and gathered in her living room. She was not able to get there without help, so her daughter held her by the arm and brought her from her bedroom.

As we sang our first song she became emotional and began to cry. After a few minutes she held up her arm and wanted to say something. We stopped singing and began to listen. Then she mumbled some words I will never forget.

“I haven t had the strength to go to Roswell Street for quite some time. I watched the church on TV until my eyes quit working. Then I listened on the radio until my hearing was lost. Now I have no way to communicate. The only thing I can do now is pray, but God is answering my prayers. I can remember many years ago when the church was just getting started and we met at an elementary school. Now 5,000 attend every Sunday. God is good, isn’t he!”

Upon hearing this story, my friend began to cry. Seeing her tears and thinking about that event made me nearly cry as well. Why the emotions? I think it is because we encountered the true meaning of Christmas.

Christmas is not about our attempts to put religious importance to a date on the calendar. It is about marveling at a God who loved us so much that he was willing to die on a cross for us. It is about seeing the love others have for Him. Finally, it is about realizing the amazing impact a baby born in Bethlehem would have then, now, and in eternity. That is what Christmas is all about and in this I am sure God is pleased.

Have a Merry Christmas!

Santa comes tomorrow and the Christmas Tree is now up!

Marietta Square got into the Christmas spirit Tuesday as city Parks and Recreation employees put up a giant tree for all to view. Tyler Jeng, 4, of Marietta, right, helped workers hang an ornament.

A Marietta high school is offering $12 testing kits to parents wanting to find out if their child is experimenting with drugs.

It allows parents to know the answer in just a few minutes. The kits test for marijuana, methamphetamine, cocaine and opiates such as morphine and heroin. They also will detect “club drugs” such as Ecstasy up to five days after ingestion.

If a child tests positive, a toll-free number is provided for parents to seek additional information or help.

Marietta is believed to be the first Georgia school district to participate in the Law Enforcement/Local Educators Against Drugs program.

Police departments and school districts in about 20 states _ including Tennessee, Florida and Alabama _ are offering the tests.

Parents with middle school children also can buy the tests from counselors at Marietta High School, a service available through a new Marietta Police Department program.

Police said they will not keep track of buyers of the kits and school officials said they will have no further involvement after a parent buys one.

“This is for parents to do in the home, not to bring to the police,” said Marietta police Lt. Mike Hathaway, who helped bring the program to the city.

Counselor Chenedra Corbin said demand will be high.

“Almost weekly, I have a parent in my office suspicious that their child may be experimenting with drugs and asking how to go about testing them,” Corbin said.

Until now, she has pointed them to a doctor’s office or the police, Corbin said.

The urine-based tests are available through the Michigan-based L.E.A.D. Total Diagnostics, which supplies the kits to treatment centers, courts, law enforcement and businesses across the country.

The kits were bought with $1,000 each from two Marietta Wal-Mart stores. The $12 fee charged for the tests will be used to buy more kits, school officials said.

We stumbled across this from the MDJ today, what a great story! Did you run in the Gobble Jog today? How was it?

At the Goodman family’s home on Kennesaw Avenue, the Gobble Jog is one Thanksgiving tradition that even the most creative excuse won’t get you out of participation.

“We tell folks, ‘If you’re gonna eat, you’re gonna run,’” Will Goodman said.

The fourth annual Thanksgiving Day Gobble Jog for MUST Ministries starts and ends at Marietta Square. The first race starts at 8:30 p.m.

Goodman, 46, has participated in the charity combination 1K, 5K and 10K road race since the first event in 2002 as a way to stay in shape, but it has slowly become a family affair.

“(Thanksgiving) is just one of our favorite holidays,” he said. “It’s all family. There’s no presents and you just spend all day with them.”

The youngest of eight children, Goodman lives in the same house where he and his six sisters and brother grew up. From the scientific name for turkey, the family fielded 30 walkers, runners and joggers this year to form team “Meleagris Flash.”

Goodman said the Gobble Jog gives the whole family, even 6-year-old Emily Conner, a good way to start Thanksgiving morning.

“It ties the generations together. That’s the best part of this,” Goodman said.

Jobs and their own families have scattered the Goodman siblings all over the southeast, but Marietta is their hometown. Goodman’s own three children, Katie, 19, Claire, 15, and Will, 14, are the seventh generation of Goodmans to live in the city.

“This Thanksgiving is a unique one for us because often we’re split up. But this Thanksgiving all the siblings and grandchildren are going to be there,” Dorothy Flynn, Goodman’s oldest sister, said.

Ms. Flynn, of Destin, Fla., hadn’t planned on arriving until this morning, but then Goodman told her everyone was signed up for the charity road race.

“I told my brother I’m not a jogger, but my brother told me a lot of people will be walking. And I said, ‘That, I can do,’” she said.

Last year, the race drew 2,300 participants and raised $74,000 for MUST Ministries. This year John Moeller, executive director of the faith-based nonprofit organization, said they expect at least 3,000 participants on the Square to help fill 1,000 plates at the organization’s Marietta location this afternoon. The Marietta office is on Elizabeth Church Road, two miles north of the Big Chicken on Cobb Parkway beside the Ga. 5 overpass.

“It has exceeded I believe everyone’s expectations,” Moeller said. “It has become just an incredible tradition in the community in just a few years.”

Alexis Edwards, owner of the Whitlock Inn, started the Gobble Jog with two goals in mind: to get in shape and to help benefit her favorite charity, MUST Ministries.

“A lot of these fundraisers in Marietta are so fancy and they don’t involve family stuff and this involves the family,” Edwards said.

It’s a family tradition Goodman’s niece, Laura Anderson, 24, of Lilburn has looked forward to since her son, Ethan, was born seven months ago.

“(Ethan) helped me get into shape too because I’d take him in the jogging stroller and he was such a good sport,” Ms. Anderson said.

She got hooked on running in 2003 when she participated in a triathlon. She and older sister Carrie, 26, run together and even listen to the same jogging mix on their iPods.

“We’re not professionals. We don’t make great time,” Ms. Anderson said. “We just run next to each other and talk and have a great time.”

This year, even teenage sister Margaret, 17, joined them in the Gobble Jog.

“It’s so nice to be around your family,” Ms. Anderson said. “You have your friends and everything, but your family is always there.”

Thanks to the MDJOnline for this great story - wow!

MARIETTA - Cobb police have arrested six Hispanic men for manufacturing identification documents at Twelve Oaks Apartments on Austell Road in an undercover sting that authorities expect will lead to more arrests.

Because the investigation is ongoing and additional arrests are pending, police did not release information about the Oct. 25 arrests until Tuesday.

Agents from the Marietta-Cobb-Smyrna Organized Crime and Intelligence Unit executed a search warrant for an apartment at 8 p.m. Oct. 25 and walked in on a “large operation,” Cobb Police Department spokesman Officer Wayne Delk said.

Officers seized about 1,300 photographs, 217 completed identification cards, various card printers, computers, scanners, laminators and other items used to manufacture fraudulent documents, Delk said.

All of the men arrested were found to have been in the country illegally.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have issued holds on the suspects, each of whom are being held at the Cobb County Jail.

Mario Jesus Zacarias, 40, of Marietta; Enrique Uriostegui, 34, of Chamblee; Allen Carmona, 21, of Smyrna; Enrique Martinez, 34; and Juan Castillo, 35, were arrested Oct. 25. Two days later, officers arrested 27-year-old Manuel Ortiz.

Each of the men, three of whom did not provide residences, are being held on $50,000 bonds in addition to ICE holds, according to information the Cobb County Sheriff’s Department provided.

“They are not going anywhere with the ICE holds on them,” Delk said.

The seized equipment was used to make various state identification cards and driver’s licenses, resident alien cards, permanent resident cards, Social Security cards and various foreign driver’s licenses, Delk said.

The manufacture of false documents and benefits such as marriages is a widespread illegal business, said Marc Raimondi, a Washington, D.C.-based spokesman for ICE.

Although Raimondi would not comment specifically on the case in Cobb, “I can tell you ICE and Homeland Security are very committed to (interrupting) document fraud and benefits.

“We recently stood up 11 task forces around the nation, including one in Atlanta, designed specifically to go after organizations producing illegal documents or benefits fraud.”

Someone using false documents or false pretenses for benefits, including securing public services or legal status from marriages, characterizes benefits fraud, he said.

ICE and Homeland Security officials are working “closely” with county, state and federal partners to “target these illicit enterprises,” Raimondi said.

No other information about the suspects was available Tuesday.

Yes, Thanksgiving is almost here. Are you stocked up and ready for the holiday ????

Join Marlene & Charlotte tonight Tuesday, November 21st (7:00-9:00pm) at Marietta Horizon Home for a special Finishing Touches Holiday Entertaining Workshop. Blu, Pan & Café, Three Bears, Marietta Wine Market and Winnan’s will be providing food and beverages for the event. $15pp (KIDS are FREE, but must be accompanied by an adult) Adult guests will also receive a $10 gift certificate from participating merchants. Learn table etiquette and tips you can use for holiday entertaining, business functions and beyond. Learn how to set a table for the holidays, present food with style and elegance and master the rules of formal dining. Reservation not required, but give Karen a call at 770-919-1574 to help us with head count for food.
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The Marietta Wine Market will be closed this Thursday and Friday for the Thanksgiving holiday. Randall and I will be spending the holiday in Gatlinberg with my family (14 adults,11 kids in the same house….Needless to say, Randall is stocking up on wine for the holiday extravaganza) . Stock up on your wine for the holiday TODAY and get 15% off 12 bottles or more. We open at 10am and will be open until 8:30 tonight to help you with your selections. Special thanks to those who volunteered to fill in for this Wed and Sat.

Santa on the Square
Join Santa and Mrs. Claus for the kickoff of the holiday season November 30 at Glover Park in the Marietta Square. Festivities begin at 5 p.m. with performances by local school choruses. Santa will make his grand entrance at 5:20 and visit with children in the gazebo until 8 p.m. The giant Christmas tree will light up at 6 p.m. The tree is donated by Big John’s Christmas Trees.

Santa’s Open House
Attend Santa’s Open House at his quaint holiday workshop in the Marietta Square Saturday, December 2. Entertainment by local groups will begin at 11:30 a.m.

Santa’s Workshop
Santa’s Workshop will be open to visitors December 2,3,9,10,16, and December 17 through 24. The hours are Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sundays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and weekdays 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. On December 24, Santa will make an early exit at 3 p.m. to get back to the North Pole.

Marietta Parks, Recreation & Facilities and the Marietta Business Association sponsor this annual event.

For more information call Marietta Parks at 770-794-5601.

The city of Marietta continues a project to resurface 18 city streets before the end of this year. A schedule of work to be completed November 20-22 includes West Post Oak Crossing, East Post Oak Crossing, Black Oak Court, Meadowbrook Drive, Scott Drive, Williams Drive and Charles Avenue.

The city’s contractor will place notices on properties along the routes of the resurfacing projects announcing the work schedule. Vehicles should not be parked on the street when work is scheduled, or they may be towed.

For more information, call 770-401-8784.

Monday, November 20
West Post Oak
East Post Oak
Black Oak Court
Meadowbrook
Scott Drive

Tuesday, November 21
Charles Avenue
West Post Oak
East Post Oak
Black Oak Court

Wednesday, November 22
Williams Drive
Charles Avenue

Thursday, November 23
Holiday — no resurfacing

Friday, November
Holiday — no resurfacing

Included streets
The project is funded by the 2005 special purpose local option sales tax (SPLOST), and city streets scheduled for resurfacing before year’s end include:

* Parkside Trail
* Manning Way
* Knollwood Drive
* Forest Lane
* Williams Drive
* Oakledge Drive
* Lacy Street
* Lewis Drive
* Ramona Street
* Rock Street
* Richard Street
* Hudson Road
* Meadowbrook Drive
* Scott Drive
* Charles Avenue
* West Post Oak Crossing
* East Post Oak Crossing
* Black Oak Court

Others to be resurfaced
A separate resurfacing project is also scheduled for 2006 with assistance from the Georgia Department of Transportation. More information will be available later, and the streets will include:

* Westland Court
* Westland Circle
* West Ridge Court
* Cedar Branch Lane
* Hazel Street
* Hickory Drive
* Lovena Drive
* Anderson Street
* Old Clay Street
* Pam Lane

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Read this today about our beloved city… ha! I am guilty!

Georgia

State Assembly members are immune from being ticketed for speeding while the State Assembly is in session.
In Marietta, Georgia it is illegal to spit from a moving car or bus, but is okay from a moving truck.